spiritual muscles

The past weekend plus today have been too good to be true =D My housemates are the BEST ever...came home from hockey game last night to house BBQ (smores/SUGAR!!! =P)

I'm so thankful it's not a sprained wrist...my left hand was still hurting this morning and I was getting a little worried last night since I won't be able to play the violin without my left hand =( or even typing, or cooking. But after Joyce gave me some ointment, it's lots better! =) That's why I can type with 2 hands now =P
Lesson learned: always know when to stop and not go past that limit because health is such a blessing from God. We should really really learn to take good care of ourselves =)

Though of course, we have to be continually challenging ourselves.
I guess I've come to think of hockey as building up my physical endurance, besides having lots of fun with teammates =) I first agreed to join hockey being persuaded into it by Steve =P I would never be able to join otherwise, since I suck at any form of sports, especially team sports. My first impression of hockey is of course, it's crazily violent and aggressive. But since it's the beginner's team, we would be safe? =P And I wanted to improve my skating too (the only times I've skated were those times at Festival Walk when we visited HK). I HATE the suicide drills though cos I still can't stop properly -_- Anyways, I still don't appreciate hockey that much and I have never really watched a game before unless it happens to be on TV nearby...but it's fun playing on Seekers =)
I must say that skating, and hockey practices and games have been really building me up for much tougher hits in future =P cuts, bruises, shin splints, muscles aches and all.
I've been reading Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secrets (by Howard and Geraldine Taylor), and I was really inspired reading about how he prepared for God's calling for him to go to China.

From that moment, Taylor's life was unified in one great purpose and prayer. Hudson Taylor "was not disobedient to the vision from heaven" (Acts 26:19). To him, obedience to the will of God was a very practical matter. At once he began to prepare for a life that would call for physical endurance. He exercised more, exchanged his feather bed for a hard mattress and was careful with his diet. Instead of going to church twice on Sunday, he gave up the evening service to visit the poorest parts of the town to distribute tracts and hold gatherings in people's homes. He became a welcome figure in crowded lodging-house kitchens. and his bright face and kind words opened the way for many to hear the gospel. All of this led to more Bible study and more time to prayer, because the opportunities showed him all the more that only God can make us "fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19).

Taylor was only a teenager then, and when he was first requested by the Chinese Evangelism Society to sail for Shanghai, he was only 21.
In the book, it says that the secret to the rapid spiritual growth of Hudson Taylor and his sister, was that from the very start, "they entered into the Lord's own yearning for the lost and dying". And this was simply from "a deep, personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ".

More importantly, besides physical endurance though, is strengthening our spiritual muscles.

"To me it was a very grave matter," he wrote of that winter, "to contemplate going out to China, far from all human aid, there to depend upon the living God alone for protection, supplies and help of every kind. I felt that one's spiritual muscles required strengthening for such an undertaking. There was no doubt that if faith did not fail, God would not fail. But what if one's faith should prove insufficient? I had not at that time learned that even 'if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself' (2 Tim. 2:13). It was consequently a very serious matter to my mind, not whether he was faithful, but whether I had strong enough faith to warrant my embarking on the enterprise set before me.
"When I get out to China,' I thought to myself, 'I shall have no claim on anyone for anything. My only claim will be on God. How important to learn, before leaving England, to move man, through God, by prayer alone."

Reading about Hudson Taylor's faith and devotion and love for the lost in China has been really encouraging, and I feel that the God has been really speaking to me through this too. I'm back in my "study/nerd mode" too and I'm so thankful for it. =)

If we just say that it's all very well that there are those so-called "really spiritual" people such as Hudson Taylor or many others - who have such great faith and can be in communion with God all the time, and experience the pure joy of being with the Lord - and keep it at, with no intentions of pursuing that same joy and peace of knowing Him or even with the thought that we won't ever be able to "reach that level"...we'd be so mistaken.

We want, we need, and we may have Hudson Taylor's secret and his success, for we have Hudson Taylor's Bible and his God.
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Heb. 13:7-8

Blessed assurance =)
(one of my dad's favourite hymn! =D)

 Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 
 O what a foretaste of glory divine! 
 Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 
 born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. 
Refrain:
 This is my story, this is my song, 
 praising my Savior all the day long; 
 this is my story, this is my song, 
 praising my Savior all the day long. 

Perfect submission, perfect delight, 
 visions of rapture now burst on my sight; 
 angels descending bring from above 
 echoes of mercy, whispers of love. 
 (Refrain) 
        
Perfect submission, all is at rest; 
 I in my Savior am happy and blest, 
 watching and waiting, looking above, 
 filled with his goodness, lost in his love. 
 (Refrain) 

~noticed I have been writing increasingly long blog posts =P
but there's just so much that I've been learning =)